I only have three days of work this week. Technically, the semester is not over, but my extra days off were already reference desk and meeting free. With my last three days in the office, I'm going to clean out my email, clear off my desk, and prep for things that have to be done first thing in the new year. That's it! I'm not tackling anything else.

If I have any hours to fill, I will do so by reviewing slide decks from a conference I went to this year and watch webinar recordings. Everything else can wait.

How do you close out your work year?

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I polished off the second book in the Crescent Series romantasy series and rolled right into the third, House of Flame and Shadow. It’s a good thing I had this book already on hand because book two ended on a cliffhanger with a twist (that I sorta knew was coming from spoilers) and I did NOT want to wait to find out what would happen next.

*Books shared here are affiliate links for Bookshop.org

• One of my favorite round ups of the year. [What does this mean to me, Laura?]

• I will be trying this. [Pop Sugar]

• The interesting trends of virtue names. [WaPo - gift link]

• An actor interview that's worth a listen. [The Daily]

• The trip of a lifetime... on a jet ski. [Atlas Obscura]

• If you still need to buy gifts, listen to this first. [Hidden Brain]

• What Notre Dame means. [The Daily] [*Note: This is an exceptional story to listen to.]

• The rise of Christmas. [Throughline]

• Inflammation is a real health problem but what you're hearing to fix it on TikTok is wrong. [Science Vs]

• Thanks to cozy holiday romances being everywhere, we've broken a bit from the Hallmark-only mode. One flick we watched was Best. Christmas. Ever! It was... not great. It had all the tropes of a Hallmark but with bigger named actors. That made the bad acting and bigger budget more disappointing. [Netflix]

• Christmas Inheritance was more classic Hallmark. A stretch of a storyline, actors you sort of remember (Plop!), and a big city girl going to a small town. This one was saved because it did not take itself all that seriously. Also, bonus points for the snow mostly looking real. [Netflix]

• Since we didn't have any Thanksgiving leftovers (and the Husband felt the need to use our roasting pan for the first time in five years) he made roasted chicken. The chicken was great - just a nice butter rub with a dusting of poultry spices. We had gravy, green beans, and stuffing as sides. Sadly, Stove Top stuffing is just not as good as a Pepperidge Farm. The lack of browned crust is noticeable and disappointing.

• It was a chicken week. We shredded some of the leftover roast chicken to use in chicken caprese salad. While we didn't do the Italian spice prep on the chicken, the dressing more than made up for it. This is a quick weeknight meal. [Eating Well]

The National Zoo went all out for Zoo Lights this year. [My Instagram]

Peruse Internet Artifacts and spur some fun nostalgic conversations. I forgot most of these things existed.

I am going to be easily distractable in the office this week.